Rise in the number of children taken into care

Reading has a higher than national average percentage of vulnerable youngsters subject to social service intervention.

Recent Department for Children, Schools and Families statistics for the town between April 2008 and April 2009 made for uncomfortable reading.

But in a performance report for children’s services presented to Reading Borough Council cabinet on Monday, it was defended and explained.

Debbie Ward, head of community care for Reading Borough Council, said: “Since the Baby P case we have seen an increase of nearly 40 per cent of the number of children being taken into care nationally and that is being reflected locally in Reading.

“Within the children’s services there is a picture of improvement but there is no room for complacency. There have of course been implications of this action on the budget as we have had to take on agency staff as social workers to cope with the workload on our staff.”

The meeting also heard the number of children in protection plans has risen from 31.6 per 10,000 in April to 43.41 per 10,000 in August.

The statistics showed:

- Four per cent more children were subject to Child Protection Plans (CPP) than nationally. - The number of children becoming subject to a CPP for the second time – 18 per cent – was five per cent higher than the national rate of 13 per cent. - Sixty per cent of the children subject to CPPs was because of neglect – 14 per cent more than the national average of 46 per cent. - Eighteen per cent of youngsters who became subject to a CPP had been on one before. The national figure for this was 13 per cent. - The percentage of children who were referred to social services within 12 months of their previous referral was 37 per cent. Nationally this figure (23 per cent) was much lower. - Just 67 per cent of initial assessments of children – five per cent fewer than the national average of 72 per cent – were completed in seven days of a referral to social services.

However, Reading did perform better than nationally in one area – 82 per cent of core assessments of children in the borough were completed within 35 days between April 2008 and April 2009. Nationally this was 78 per cent.

A recent spotcheck by Ofsted suggested improvements had been made in the service, previously deemed “inadequate” by the Government in a Joint Area Review eight months ago.

Inspectors made their unannounced inspection of Referral and Assessment Services in Children’s Social Care in August.

The inspection report said: “The speed and effectiveness of the remedial change implemented by managers since the Joint Area Review has led to greatly improved front line services for children and families.”

The report noted social workers have manageable caseloads and were well supervised but highlighted four areas for improvement:

- Assessments of children referred to the service are not always completed on time. - Some of the cases social work assistants are carrying are too complex. - Protocols with the police about notifying domestic abuse are not sufficiently developed. - Lack of clarity about what kinds of cases should be referred to Children’s Actions Teams sometimes causes delays in children and families receiving services.

Cllr John Ennis, for children’s services, said: “I am very pleased to see Ofsted has recognised the real progress the service has made.

“We are, however, well aware that there is still quite some way to go before we have the very high quality service we are aiming for, and we will continue to do all we can to improve until we reach that point.”